Fuel supply: Petrol pumps strike called off after late-night agreement

Sealed petrol pumps allowed to resume operation.

LAHORE: The Petrol Pump Owners Association (PPOA) and the Lahore Development Authority reached a compromise late Sunday night. The PPOA called off the strike for Monday (today) in return for the LDA allowing the six petrol pumps sealed on Saturday to resume operations until a final decision in the matter was reached. The LDA would, however, retain the legal possession of the sites.

The meeting held at the office of the district coordination officer decided to arrange a comprehensive dialogue on the subject once the Punjab chief minister returned from Turkey. The meeting was chaired by the Lahore DCO, Ahad Cheema. LDA’s director general, Umer Rasool, was also present.

The PPOA had earlier nnounced a strike in protest against the Lahore Development Authority’s decision to seal 18 petrol pumps in the city and hold a fresh auction for these sites.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Major Iftikhar, whose petrol pump was one of the four sealed by the LDA, said that he would move court against the LDA. He said the LDA staff raided his petrol pump and sealed it without producing anything in writing sanctioning the act. Iftikhar said he had recently taken a Rs20 million loan from a bank and invested the money in the business. “How can I return the loan if they take away the site?” he asked.

Muhammad Shehzad, the PPOA chairman, had told The Tribune that the pumps had been allotted to the current occupants for a 30-year-period in 2002 by then Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi.

He had said that now the LDA had come up with the claim that the lease period started from the date these pumps were first established. He had said that they had acquired a stay order from the court. He, however, added that if the LDA agreed they were ready to get their leases renewed.

He had said two months ago Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif met a delegation of petrol pump owners and assured them that their businesses would not be hurt, but now the LDA was sealing the pumps.

An LDA official, contacted for his response to the PPOA’s decision, had said that the lease of these pumps had expired years ago and that they were running in violation of the law. He said that the LDA had court orders and was determined to seal these pumps and hold a fresh auction.

He had said that the sites were leased for a three-year term against a very small amount.

Besides, the original lease-holders were oil companies who illegally sub-leased them to dealers till 2009, despite the expiry of their own lease.

The auction for these 18 sites was scheduled to be conducted on December 28, he said, adding that all oil companies would be invited to the auction.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2010.